Mushroom fricassee // 1810's recipe

I never used to like mushrooms as a child, however I did like to roam around the forest and pick them. To be honest I think my love for woodlands comes from that and the fact that my mother allowed us (my brother and I) to shout to our hearts content while we where there, something that was forbidden at home. Now that I have swapped the beautiful Nordic forests for Australian beaches my love for all things foresty has intensified. So one morning I decided to teach myself to love mushrooms and planned to make a mushroom tart. I think there were more caramelised onions in it than mushrooms but it did the trick. Fast forward 7 years and I found myself craving a mushroom sauce with my pork schnitzel for dinner. Which leads me to today’s recipe.

Fricassee is a dish where meat (typically chicken) or sometimes vegetables are cut up and stewed until done and the resulting liquid is turned into a white sauce. While comparing modern fricassee recipes with the older ones the main difference I noticed was that nowadays we tend to fry the meat and vegetables first before adding any liquids. Which is what I would normally do because by frying something first you get browning and that equates to flavour. However older recipes tend to poach the meat or vegetables first and then with the resulting liquid make a sauce which is more efficient method of cooking. As the mushrooms in the shop are quite large I decided to cut them into smaller pieces however if I have wanted to serve this as a side dish and not a sauce over my pork schnitzel I would not have done so. The mushroom fricassee came out very nice and my boyfriend approved it as well, though I think he would have been happy no matter what as there were pork schnitzel and potatoes on his plate as well.

Mushroom fricassee. The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald (1810).

Mushroom fricassee

2 generously

200 grams mushrooms (100 grams after cleaned and peeled)
100 ml water
salt
1 very small onion, peeled and studded with cloves
25 grams butter
1 tsp flour
2 tbsp cream
finely chopped parsley
black pepper

Prepare your mushrooms. Cut off the stalk, clean the gills and peel the mushroom. If the mushrooms are large, cut the into smaller pieces. Add water and salt and bring it to a boil, then cook on medium high heat until the mushrooms are soft and almost to your liking. Add the butter, flour, onion, cream and parsley and still until the sauce has thickened. Discard the onion and serve.